My name is Laura, a Spanish girl from Ourense,( a small city in Galicia ) and this article will help you understand the value of cross-cultural experiences. I currently live in Santiago de Compostela, The final stop in one of the most famous pilgrimages in the world, the Camino de Santiago. I came to this city to study in the University a B.A. Management and Business and Economy, and stayed to work as a civil servant. My hobbies are dancing, yoga, cinema, music concerts, reading, and of course, travel. Living in my town means feeling the experience of watching travellers from all over the world every day enjoying this marvelous hotspot of culture.
I love discovering nature and cultural experiences for its personal development benefits, mainly places with a remarkable cultural shock for me, with people of other more extreme cultures, different languages, and interests, but also exploring and re-discovering places in my own country: beaches, villages, and all kinds of interesting places.
Galician people like me are known for feeling the “Morriña”, which is a Galician language word to express a very particular kind of homesickness of our own, that difference us from the rest of Spanish people who does not use that world, they simply use “homesickness” as usual. The fact is that I miss a lot my homeplace when abroad but I enjoy so much the time I spend in another country, another culture, that for a while I forget the “Morriña” because life is so short you have to take advantage of every moment!
For me, leaving your comfort zone is very important to your personal development, to learning how to deal with the exterior world, you will be braver in facing current situations in your daily life and you will work abilities so essentials in life as resilience, patience, assertiveness…so at the end you only gain advantages. In addition, you can meet new interesting people, cultural experiences…what else is there ?
Even the most horrific places can bring you so much appreciation for life. For example it is devastating when you visit a place where misfortune and misery have struck, if there has been a war, calamities, or humiliations towards humanity, such as concentration camps, etc. The sensation I had when I arrived at the Ground Zero in New York City it was strange, as soon as I arrived I remember that I sat there at the fountain of the memorial where all the names of the deceased are engraved; and suddenly I started to cry… and I’m not the type of person to cry anywhere but that place transmitted so much negative energy and a new sensation for me. I surprised myself, I don’t know if the same thing happened to any other traveler ever ?
My top cultural experiences from around the world are;
- Edinburgh, for me an impressive city to live in. We did a free tour of ghosts and myths, and I think the dark legends and obscure history that feature this city are extremely intriguing.
- Swimming with sea turtles in Akumal, México was the moment of my life.
- Thailand has a night market where you can see all kinds of bugs to eat. Tarantulas, scorpions, crocodile meat, grasshoppers… what struck me the most, without a doubt, was seeing grilled scallops, due to the great phobia I have for them. My boy ate crickets and grasshoppers, but I was unable to, although I tried all the local foods, I couldn’t eat that one hahaha.
I was also surprised in Thailand, as I thought many people spoke English, but I was mistaken hahaha. So you could say I got the cultural experiences I was looking for. At least with effort, signals, and a map in your hands, it is possible.
- Nazaré, a splendid village in the middle of Portugal, very near to Lisbon, since it was one of the last places I travelled last month and it was amazing for me. This place is known for the surfing championships, where the most remarkable surfers of all the world come here to deal with waves of up to 30 meters!
Best times to travel ;
Travelling anywhere in May, for the best prices without any doubt. You can find quite good weather in almost any part of the world, it is cheap and you will avoid crowds.
But in winter I also like to travel to central Europe just before Christmas, for example, with the decorations and the Christmas markets, everything looks like a fairy tale.
Summer is fantastic to come to Europe, and even to go to Nordic countries to enjoy them with more sunlight hours and less cold weather.
Safety
Depending on the destination chosen, I always consider taking insurance for unforeseen events, health, and even cancellation, if I take it out well in advance, as you never know what might happen in a few months’ time. There are places with very bad health systems where it is necessary to be properly covered, on the other hand, nowadays we have a wide range of insurances, that for little money, make you go safe and sometimes it pays off.
Planning;
I think I’m really good at finding the cheapest way to travel, always trying to find the best value for money whether I book it with an agency or on my own. Many people are amazed when I tell them the price of the plane tickets I find and things like that… It is very important not to limit your search to just one website, use flight comparators, hotel comparators, look at reviews…I’m one of those who, even if I book it with an agency, end up looking myself and telling the agency the hotel I want because it’s better and cheaper than the one they offered me initially (in fact I’m doing it right now for my next trip). I don’t mind looking for hours and hours on the internet, comparing a thousand websites that exist, which luckily nowadays you can choose due to the great offer that exists. It is a question of having patience and above all, that you like to organize trips, to the smallest detail like
- the transports
- researching the right sim card
- knowing how much a taxi should charge you on average for a trip
- use applications like Tripadvisor to look for restaurants with the three ‘B’s as we say in Spain (Bueno, Bonito, Barato) that is to say: Good, Beautiful and Cheap.
- find out a lot about the standard of living in the place you’re going to
- what the exchange rate should be & what currencies they accept. check whether it’s better to bring your own currency and go to an exchange office at the airport, in the hotel, in the city (things can change a lot) or if it’s better to bring money changed from your place of origin, see if it’s worth paying by credit card… all those things that will help you not to feel ruined when you return home hahaha.
Do it;
If you really want to grow, cultural experiences are perfect, and this is the perfect moment, do not let it pass! do not hesitate! You will regret more the things that you do not dare to do, than the things you dare to do.
